 The air immediately smelt Chinese, and a million faces confirmed this was indeed China. I fell in love with this country and how expansive it was - from the bustle of Hong Kong to the little town of Zhongwei to the sand dunes of the Tengger desert. So much in one country.
'I swear I was clean shaven when I got on that flight!' I heard a man remark after we arrived in Beijing. Everything looked beautiful in this land of no letters, even the garish adverts seemed photographic. I loved everything about this strange and beautiful country, right down to the little things, like how hairdryers were used to cook food in the markets, middle aged men went around with their tops rolled up to indicate their wealth, babies exposed bottoms, calligraphy painting on the pavement, strings of kites fluttering in the night sky, people banging their backs on trees, and walking backwards swinging their arms or patting their tummies, and of course the little red riding hoods on their bikes in the rain. Out of everywhere I've ever been this was the country where I felt I was truly experiencing a different culture, a different way of life.
I loved the language, although I found it hard to tell who was actually having an argument. And how in taxis when you were trying to drift off, it took a while to work out if it was an English or Mandarin speaking radio station you were listening to. Our state of insomnia due to rock hard beds in rank hostels where there was no soap, just a load of condoms, led to mishearing words. So 'waiters' sounded like 'witches' and 'children' 'chicken'. Pong insisted that 'candyfloss is from animal', while Guo asked if I was a 'vegetable'. He kept on asking us to 'poo' the water as well, not 'pour'. And his greatest piece of advice was to take a polythene bag to the desert to put over our heads, You know, so the sand doesn't get in your orifices if there's a storm at night!
Now I love Chinese food, but eating it 3 times a day got a bit too much for my stomach, resulting in the runs. Noodles are all very well for dinner, but at breakfast all I could manage was coffee, as the bread was too sweet and powdery. Blueberry ice lollies were divine.
My favourite places in Beijing were the art district, 798, which was a group of abandoned warehouses, and a massive lake reflecting all the neon lights from restaurants and bars huddled around it. I loved walking around it, because as you passed each restaurant you heard completely different types of music, and each was decorated completely differentely. Round that off with small boutiques and illegal stalls and it was perfect. The hairdressers there were actually brothels. I loved the desert because it was so unexpected. And vast, All the dunes made it easy to get lost. Pathetic egotistical machines ate away at them, desperate to conquer the vast beasts that stood strong in defiance. They looked like child toys, those tractors on the horizon, child play. How naive to take on nature. I could see how if you were lost in the desert it's only a matter of time before you lose your mind. It was excruciatingly hot, and what seems like a mile takes hours to walk. The corners of my mind started to merge.
I love sleeper trains. And the weird things yous see on them. A cleaner took of this child's pants, and his parents didn't seem to mind. Then they gave the child a bottle to pee in, and seconds later they were making him drink out of it. In Luoyang people sit on the green bits of traffic island playing cards. Hundreds of them. Descending in the plane to Guilin was like descending into an alien landscape. The sun drenched lush carpet of rugged triangular peaks was other-worldly. Clouds like ballet scenery. The witch-hat hills jutted up from planes of patchwork paddies, casting irregular shadows. It was so breathtakingly beautiful because it was so different to anything I've ever seen.
Driving through Yangshou, it could've been any country in the world. Headlights and winding roads. The community in that town was a real community. At night they all gathered in the town square, old ladies sang and danced while men played strange instruments, couples ballroom danced, teenagers sat by fountains or played badminton, people watched a movie on a massive screen, and kids played on the bouncy castle. Every night.
Hong Kong breathed possibilities. The city was full of opportunities and felt so vividly alive. I love China and all that it is.
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